Grass is commonly maintained with lawn care machinery such as, for example, walk behind lawn mowers, riding lawn mowers, lawn tractors, and/or the like. Riding lawn mowers provide the convenience of a riding vehicle and a larger cutting deck than typical walk-behind lawn mowers. Riding lawn mowers are also generally configured with center rear discharge decks or side discharge decks.
Typically, center rear discharge (“CRD”) decks use two to three blades to cut grass and propel grass clippings out the center/rear of the deck. The grass clippings are propelled to the center/rear of the deck by having the left most (with respect to operator seating position) blade rotate clockwise and the right most blade rotating counter clockwise. The counter rotating blades, along with housing shape, push air and grass clippings towards the center rear of the deck. Generally, the blades are driven by a belt with a clockwise rotating engine. The left blade is usually driven with the inside of the belt causing it to rotate in a first direction. The right hand blade is usually driven by the outside of the belt causing it to rotate in a second direction. In order to drive the right hand blade with the outside of the belt, a double-sided belt and several idler pulleys are typically utilized. It is also common practice to tension the belt system using an idler arm on the right side. This deck pulley system tends to utilize an electric or mechanical clutching system at the engine to drive the belt. As such, typical CRD decks employ complicated belt drive, directional, and tensioning arrangements, such as those shown in FIG. 1. These complicated systems require expensive belts, electro-mechanical clutching systems, and various other components which increase the cost and maintenance, and reduce the reliability of typical CRD decks.